The popular application for emulating the Nintendo Switch system on PC, Yuzu, has finally made its way to Android

The official announcement details many things about the port, including the why and the things that users can expect with current development.

Of particular interest, the developers explained how the Android version of Yuzu may still be in its infancy—meaning to say, that it does not have the same maturity as the PC version just yet or that the overall breadth between the two in terms of scope is not the same. Specifically, features such as input profiles and multiplayer over LAN are conspicuously missing in the mobile version.

Instead, the developers appear to focus on the meat of the application—“compatibility and performance”—which comes with its own set of unique challenges considering the less powerful, typical Android machine.

Speaking of which, the stated minimum hardware and software requirements to run Yuzu on Android is a smartphone running on Android 11 or newer, a Snapdragon chipset with Adreno GPU, and a minimum of 6GB RAM (8GB recommended).

Yuzu-Android-Devices-Compatibility

See also: Best Game Boy Emulators for Android

With that said, the developer also revealed the reason behind the hardware requirement, suggesting that SoCs like MediaTek, Exynos, and others would not work due to their subpar GPU drivers compared to Adreno.

Being more particular with the type of hardware that could run the emulator on notable performances, though, the developers cited Snapdragon chipsets with Adreno 600 series GPUs provide the best compatibility. Meanwhile, the newer Adreno 700 that comes with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 1 offers the best gaming performance.

As to why these specific components, the makers explained that it is due to the open-source Turnip graphics drivers that were made available to them, but not necessarily on older and newer parts.

Yet, there might also be outliers—such as the Galaxy S22, which comes with an Exynos 2200 CPU, said to be capable of running Yuzu, albeit largely due to the AMD GPU built into the SoC. It is yet to be tested, though.

The Yuzu Nintendo Switch Android emulator is presently available for download from the Google Play Store for free.

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